COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 11 Journalist George S. Schuyler (opposite right) interviews Malcolm X at WLIB radio in Harlem in 1964. American producer, playwright and radio host Vy Higginsen in the studio of New York’s radio station WBLS (above). Robin Sundaramoorthy (below). way. One way he proposed to do that was to try and increase minority broadcast ownership. “In 1968 there were only five Blackowned radio stations,” Sundaramoorthy says. “By 1978 there were 62, so less than 1 percent of all radio stations in the country were owned by African Americans.” Though Carter would leave office before he saw his plan come to fruition, in 1983 the FCC issued Docket No. 80-90. This rule ultimately led to the creation of approximately 700 new FM stations in small- to mid-sized communities across the country. While the rule forever altered the landscape of FM radio, Sundaramoorthy found through her research that efforts to increase minority broadcast ownership had been stymied by a convoluted combination of economic policy, judicial rulings and political maneuvering by the party that controls the White House. “From the 1930s up until shortly after Carter was elected, there were so many policies in place that prevented minorities and women from entering into ownership,” Sundaramoorthy. “The airwaves were free, but the FCC grants the licenses, and a lot of structural racism prevented Black people from entering the industry.” Sundaramoorthy learned that applicants for those licenses had to have previous experience in the broadcast field which, of course, most Black Americans didn’t have because they didn’t have access to those types of opportunities. the University of Maryland. That dissertation, “Black Radio Ownership and the FCC’s Failed Attempt to Diversify the Airwaves,” won awards from the American Journalism Historians Association and the Broadcasters Education Association, and received the highly prestigious Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association this year. A Long and Winding Road The road back to radio was winding but rewarding. Sundaramoorthy worked in various production roles at local news stations before joining CNN, where she served as associate producer and producer for CNN International and CNN Airport Network. These experiences equipped her to move to the Christian Broadcasting Network, where she became Washington, D.C. bureau chief in 2011—the first Black person and first woman to hold the position. “I had a great career, I traveled across the United States and all over the world,” Sundaramoorthy says. “I covered then-Senator Barack Obama when he was running for president. I was in Grant Park the night President Obama won, interviewing people in the crowd.” During that time, however, the journalism industry was irrevocably changing. The traditional business model of print advertising had cratered; local newsrooms continued to either shutdown or merge; and social media platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) started becoming the primary news sources for more and more people. For Sundaramoorthy, it was time for a change, too. She left CBN, got married, had a child, and began teaching classes at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., as an adjunct professor. That experience rekindled her interest in getting her PhD. So, with her master’s in journalism from Michigan State University in hand, and twenty years of lived experience in the industry, Sundaramoorthy began her doctoral studies at the University of Maryland. Barriers to Entry The specific dissertation topic Sundaramoorthy decided to focus on was the federal government’s efforts to increase minority broadcast ownership by increasing the number of FM radio stations in the early 1980s, a push that began when Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976. Sundaramoorthy says Carter had won the Black vote overwhelmingly, and he felt he needed to repay the Black community in some CHRISTINE KRESCHOLLEK, FAIRCHILD ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES
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